Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 766, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/766/2/97
Keywords
ISM: clouds; magnetohydrodynamics (MHD); radiative transfer; stars: formation; stars: luminosity function, mass function; turbulence
Categories
Funding
- NASA [NNG06-GH96G]
- NSF [AST-0908553, NSF12-11729, CAREER-0955300]
- Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship
- U.S. Department of Energy at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [DE-AC52-07NA27344, LLNL-B569409]
- NASA through ATFP
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [0955300] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1211729] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [0955300] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [0908553] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We present a set of three-dimensional, radiation-magnetohydrodynamic calculations of the gravitational collapse of massive (300M(circle dot)), star-forming molecular cloud cores. We show that the combined effects of magnetic fields and radiative feedback strongly suppress core fragmentation, leading to the production of single-star systems rather than small clusters. We find that the two processes are efficient at suppressing fragmentation in different regimes, with the feedback most effective in the dense, central region and the magnetic field most effective in more diffuse, outer regions. Thus, the combination of the two is much more effective at suppressing fragmentation than either one considered in isolation. Our work suggests that typical massive cores, which have mass-to-flux ratios of about 2 relative to critical, likely form a single-star system, but that cores with weaker fields may form a small star cluster. This result helps us understand why the observed relationship between the core mass function and the stellar initial mass function holds even for similar to 100MM(circle dot) cores with many thermal Jeans masses of material. We also demonstrate that a similar to 40 AU Keplerian disk is able to form in our simulations, despite the braking effect caused by the strong magnetic field.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available